


Ticket to the Future

by Merfilly



Category: Wasted Youth/Everything Louder Than Everything Else - Meatloaf (Song)
Genre: F/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-28
Updated: 2014-05-28
Packaged: 2018-01-26 23:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1705895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's got the guitar, and she's on track to being her own person now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ticket to the Future

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WildAndFreeHearts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildAndFreeHearts/gifts).



I'd been looking for one of these all winter, knowing graduation was right around the corner. Dad's constant lectures on responsibility, on keeping my GPA up were grating my nerves. I didn't want to be a damn lawyer. I wanted to play music for a living, and the guitar was how I was going to make my name. I didn't care what my parents thought about the matter. I'd be an adult soon enough!

"Your dad is going to wig out." I didn't really listen to Jaesen as I reached out to accept my purchase from the clerk. I had a Fender. I had the start of my future in my hands. Nothing else mattered. 

"Rock on," the clerk offered as a benediction on the sale. I certainly planned to. My whole future had just opened to the visions in my head.

`~`~`~`~`

I got the guitar into my room without being seen. I had a couple of hours before Mom would be back, maybe three before Dad finished porking the secretary and calling it 'overtime'. I just ran my fingers up and down the neck at first, before I finally gave the strings a true test.

How she sang to me. I pushed the limits of the time I knew I had, all my old lessons coming back smoothly. Learning classical guitar had been mom's idea as an extracurricular that would look good to a college. Right now, I didn't care about her reasons, about dad's scowling acquiescence back then. All I cared about were the melodies thrumming in my veins, singing from her strings.

"We're going to break free of this place, you and me," I crooned to her before finally putting her out of sight under my bed. Soon, I would declare my freedom, and she would go with me. We just needed to tread carefully until we were good enough to stand on our own. It wouldn't do to let dad find out and wreck her before she took me to new heights.

`~`~`~`~`

"What in the Almighty's Name are you doing?!" 

I looked up to see my father storming in. The first thought that went through my mind was that either the secretary had been out or on the rag. Either way, he was way early, and mom wasn't in the house to break this up.

"Practicing," I surprised myself by saying.

In the next moment, he crossed the floor, hand raised. The slap stung, but I saw his other hand reaching, and I used the momentum from his slap to move, to spin away, shielding my salvation with my body.

"Give me that damn guitar! I did not invest all the money in your schooling to see you throw it all away on this … this vile thing!" he roared.

"Fuck you," I said, before I did give him the guitar.

Repeatedly.

There was blood on her body, up along the strings. I took the time to wipe her down, then threw some clothes in a bag. Maybe he'd live, maybe he wouldn't. Right then, I didn't care anymore.

`~`~`~`~`

I had been in Memphis for two months when I hooked up with Dix and his band. They were skeptical of the girl with the axe, but they were already booked for a show. They needed someone. 

Three gigs later, Dix walked into the rat trap I was staying in. He looked me over like I normally looked my guitar over when she was on her stand.

"The crowds like you." 

"Yeah, I know," I told him, strumming quietly on her strings.

"You not just going to up and leave like our last guy, right?" he asked.

"Depends." I looked him over head to toe, reading all his body, his face. He wanted something, more than just if I was staying, and I knew it.

Did I want it? Maybe. He looked clean enough, smelled okay even when we were sweating our asses off in the clubs he found for us to play.

"We're heading to Nashville this weekend, cut a demo at one of the studios there. You in?" he asked, but he came in further, almost in arms' reach of me and my guitar.

"Split three ways?" I asked. I had some cash, not much. The gigs often paid more in beer or weed than actual dough.

"If I'm going to manage us, don't you think I should get more?" he asked, but his eyes glinted.

He wanted me to sweeten the deal by being his bonus? I set my baby down on her stand, then leaned back on the bed.

"How long you going to last just as a singer, 'cause I know Ty won't drum if you short him like that." I gave him a lazy smile. "Going to hit him up for blow-jobs to make up for splitting it three ways?"

Dix laughed, and that made up my mind. If he'd gotten pissed, I'd've shown him the door, but he wasn't.

"Don't usually go in for that kind of thrill," he told me. "Guess if we're going to rock'n'roll, I might need to learn it, yeah?"

Now I laughed before crooking a finger at him.

He was cute, he could laugh, and he was part of the ticket to the future.

`~`~`~`~`

I passed the blunt back over to Ty, keeping the smoke in my lungs. Dix walked in a few minutes later, and took his own hit, but he was looking at me the whole time.

"Cop looking for someone that looks like you," he said. Beside me, Ty flinched.

"Her?" he asked warily.

"Josey, the bouncer, told me. They didn't tell, but Josey said we need to do something about it."

I sat up, all tense and ready to run, before I noticed he had a bag from the drug store.

"So what? Y'all going to find someone else now?" I asked, reaching a hand over to my guitar for strength.

"Hell no, we ain't," Ty spat. "Cops or no, you can play. Lay low, make you look less like you, pick up some different gigs."

"What Ty said," Dix said, laying out a haircut kit and some hair dye. "Josey told me because he knows. We all have shit we left behind. Take care of each other, keep going. It's all rock'n'roll."

"Shit yeah, man," Ty said, grinning at me.

I could hear my guitar singing to me, and I settled in to let them help me find my future.

It was my life, but I had them, and I had my guitar.


End file.
